Mental health issues and thoughts of suicide account for more than one third of all calls made by children and young adults to the national Kids Helpline, a new report has found.
The report revealed Kids Helpline counsellors were now making more than twice as many emergency interventions than they did two years ago.
According to figures from the National Mental Health Commission, 600,000 Australian children between the ages of 4 and 17 were affected by a mental health problem every year with tens of thousands of those calling services like Kids Helpline.
Increasingly, young people were calling with an urgent concern such as suicide.
Over the last two years, more and more children’s counsellors reported serious calls, which needed to be referred to emergency services.
“Counsellors obviously have to make a very critical assessment of what’s required at that time, and they’ll obviously keep working with the young person as a number one priority,” Tracy Adams, CEO of Kids Helpline said.
“Behind the scenes there’s a lot of work done to connect [them] either with emergency services, ambulances, police, child safety officers.”
Molly, 17, who recently suffered a mental health crisis, said she owed her life to Kids Helpline.
“Without Kids Helpline I wouldn’t be alive,” she said.
“It’s as simple as that.”
4,000 using national counselling service every week
Molly is one of around 4,000 children or young adults who sought help from the national counselling service every week.
According to the figures mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety, were the number one issue affecting nearly one quarter of all children or adults who sought help.
Family relationship problems – such as parents divorcing – made up 19 per cent of concerns. For children aged between 5 and 12, it was their biggest concern.
Emotional wellbeing accounted for 17 per cent of issues, and suicide-related issues 12 per cent.
“Last year we had more than 1,600 of those such cases and they’re primarily related to young people calling who were in immediate harm, either through child abuse or who were undertaking a current suicide attempt,” Ms Adams said.
“Young people who are feeling very, very alienated, very isolated, feeling very much that they have no hope. When a young child has no hope it’s an extremely sad place for them to be.”
Of particular concern was a six-fold increase in those aged between 12 and 15 reporting suicidal thoughts.
“That tells me we have to get in a lot earlier and develop resilience in kids and help-seeking behaviour in children,” the National Children’s Commissioner, Megan Mitchell said.
Numbers may just be tip of iceberg: experts
In total, Kids Helpline responded to 213,666 requests for help across Australia last year while 648,343 people visited the Kids Helpline website.
But experts warned those numbers could be just the tip of the iceberg.
“Only a small percentage of kids actually seek help,” Ms Mitchell said.
“It’s great that they do. But what we really need is to encourage more help-seeking among children, and particularly among boys.”
Last week the Federal Government released the National Mental Health Review of Australia’s mental health sector after Health Minister Sussan Ley received the report in November.
The review recommended more targeted support for vulnerable children.
It said there had been a big investment in teenage mental health, but not enough preventative mental health care for children under the age of 12.
Chief executive of Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre in Melbourne, Associate Professor Jane Burns said more online and e-health services should be funded which are targeted at children’s mental wellbeing.
“Technologies provide us with an opportunity to focus on promotion of well being, focus on the prevention of problems before they start,” Professor Burns said.
“What we’re arguing is, technologies can fill a gap and can do that in a much more cost effective way, freeing up face-to-face services for more complex needs.”
About half of all mentally ill Australians begin having problems before the age of 14.
Professor Burns said fewer children would need crisis support if mental health problems were identified earlier.